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politics and history of Slovakia

…the populist Smer (“Direction”), the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union, the Slovak National Party, the Party of the Hungarian Coalition, the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, and the Christian Democratic Movement.

Ivan Gašparovič of the Movement for Democracy party defeated Mečiar in the presidential election that year, and the economy continued to grow. Parliamentary elections in 2006 resulted in yet another coalition of ruling parties, with the leader of the populist party Smer, Robert Fico, becoming prime minister.